


scared of pretty girls and starting conversations

by Kallimax



Category: Charlie's Angels (2019)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Consent, F/F, Gay Panic, Light Dom/sub, Multi, Nervousness, Praise Kink, Sharing a Bed, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27559393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kallimax/pseuds/Kallimax
Summary: Elena was a success. She was in control - until she wasn’t. Until her boss sent an assassin after her, and her carefully logical life turned inside out and upside down.Even now, weeks after it was over, after they’d stopped the bad guys and saved the world, she couldn't relax. Luckily, Jane and Sabina had a plan to help.
Relationships: Elena Houghlin/Jane Kano/Sabina Wilson
Comments: 5
Kudos: 118





	scared of pretty girls and starting conversations

Elena Houghlin was perfectly aware she’d been a too nervous child. The anxiety that bubbled up inside kept her tense, worried, fidgety. She was rarely still unless she was coding. 

Then, it was her mind that ran wild, raced through every scenario, always moving forward. And she was praised for it. When she fidgeted, let her nerves get the best of her, she got scolded.

So, Elena threw herself into the technical, rational, intellectual — pushed and pushed until she was leading a life-changing project for one of the world’s biggest companies. She was a success. She was in control.

Until she wasn’t. 

Until her boss sent an assassin after her, and her carefully logical life turned inside out and upside down.

Even now, weeks after it was over, after they’d stopped the bad guys and saved the world, Elena couldn’t relax. Training to be an Angel ate up her energy during the day, but at night, she kicked at her new Townsend Agency blankets restlessly or paced her nicely-apportioned quarters.

She was running, pushing like she’d done her whole life, but now, she was wearing thin.

Elena didn’t want to admit it. What if they decided she wasn’t good enough, kicked her out? She had nowhere else to go now, not with her once promising career in ruins. And she wanted to be here, wanted to prove she was as capable as Sabina and Jane. 

But she wasn’t as confident as they were and didn’t think she ever would be. What if that was essential to being an Angel and she just wasn’t cut out for it?

Elena sighed and flung herself out of bed, fully prepared for another sleepless night.

“Get it together, Houghlin,” she muttered before throwing herself into one of the Angels’ warm up routines. Exercise was supposed to be good for sleeplessness, after all. It hadn’t worked yet, but she could always try again, right?

She was halfway through her second set of squats when she heard a knock at the door. She froze in place for a good thirty seconds, as her brain whizzed through the training schedule in an effort to figure out who would be here this late.

Had she forgotten something? Was this a pop quiz of some kind?

Before she could figure it out, Sabina called through the door, “Let us in! We’re here to make you sleep.”

The words made her pause, her training-suffused mind pondering “make you sleep” with a certain level of paranoia, but she trusted Sabina. So, she pulled herself out of her squat and skittered over to the door.

As soon as it was open, Sabina waltzed in like she owned the place, bumping Elena’s shoulder as she went.

Jane stood outside. “Can we come in?” she asked, despite Sabina’s obvious intrusion.

“Sure,” Elena said, and she pushed the door wider for the other woman. 

Jane rewarded her with a small smile, and Elena was pretty sure her heart skipped a beat. She ducked her head and busied herself with shutting the door to avoid thinking about it.

“How’d you guys know I wasn’t asleep?” she asked.

“Oh, we’ve been stalking you,” Sabina said with a grin. “Jane calls it ‘keeping tabs.’”

“She’s joking. Mostly,” Jane said. She grimaced apologetically. “Those bracelet communicators have a longer range than you’d think.”

“Oh.” Elena could feel her nerves welling up. Of course, she should have expected that. But no, she put the bracelet neatly on her nightstand every night. She hoped to god she hadn’t been snoring. Of course, that would’ve meant she would’ve had to have slept at any point recently, so she was probably safe on that front at least. 

“Have I been keeping you guys awake?” she asked. “Sorry, I didn’t know. I can move it. Throw it in the drawer maybe?”

“Trust me, that’s not why you’ve been keeping us awake,” Sabina said. 

Before Jane spoke up, Elena thought she heard Sabina mutter something along the lines of “too cute for her own damned good,” but that couldn’t have been true. She was clearly hallucinating, the lack of sleep finally getting to her. That _would_ also explain why the two Angels had shown up on her doorstep in the middle of the night in their pajamas.

“We’re worried about you,” Jane said.

“Why?” The word came out sharper than she’d intended, and Elena winced. “Did one of the Bosleys say something? Because I promise I’ve been keeping up with my training and my reading and all my work.”

“We’re not worried about your training, dummy,” Sabina said. She grinned widely and gave a double thumbs-up. “You’re doing great, like we knew you would.”

“But you’re not sleeping,” Jane said. “And we want to help.”

Elena gaped at the two Angels in front of her, half convinced she’d actually fallen asleep after all and was now in the midst of a bizarre — but not unwelcome — dream. “Help how?” she said, the words squeaky with nerves, and she slid her suddenly slick palms down her sides.

“First, getting you out of those clothes,” Sabina said.

Elena choked on her own breath, and Jane glared hard as she reached over to pat her back. It did nothing to help, as every one of Elena’s muscles tensed up under the touch.

“What?” Sabina said with a grin that said she’d known exactly what she was doing. “You don’t wear those to bed, do you?”

Feeling dazed, Elena looked down at her Townsend Agency-provided workout gear. She barely remembered she’d put it on when she’d decided she wasn’t getting any sleep tonight. 

“No,” she said, and it came out raspy. She cleared her throat, hoping desperately the others wouldn’t guess the thoughts now whirling through her mind, ways they could help her sleep — or pass the time until morning — with fewer clothes, more touching.

They were all professionals, and she was sure whatever Jane and Sabina were here to do, it would be professional. So, she would be professional, too, and not think about how much she wanted to caress Jane’s biceps or test just how good Sabina’s mouth was at everything but talking.

Elena only realized she’d been silent and probably staring for what was clearly too long when Jane put a hand on her shoulder. She swore she jumped at least three feet.

“Go get changed,” Jane said in such an even tone that Elena was instantly jealous. Why did her body always have to betray her, announcing to everyone around just how nervous she was?

Nonetheless, she nodded at Jane’s order, practically scrambling forward in her haste to obey. She could use a minute to herself to get her traitorous mind under control.

“We’ll be waiting,” Sabina called cheerfully after her, and it took Elena every ounce of Angel training to keep from tripping over her own feet.

In the relative safety of the bathroom, Elena scrubbed her hands over her face, trying to ignore the slight trembling she could see in the mirror.

“You’re an Angel,” she muttered at her reflection. “Going to be an Angel. You have to be better than this.” She pinched at the skin of her wrist, wincing at the brief flash of pain. Not a dream, then. She’d had to know.

“You’re going to be an Angel,” she repeated, staring directly into her own eyes and willing any part of this pep talk to stick. “You can do anything. Including not super gay panicking when your friends — _colleagues_ — just want you to sleep.”

She nodded at herself to emphasize the point. “You can do this.”

She grabbed a washcloth and flipped the faucet on, getting it just wet enough she could soothe her fevered skin.

“You’re being ridiculous,” she told herself before swiping the cloth across her face. “You’re fine.”

And with the time to herself, she did feel better, less jittery and out of control. She really could do — whatever this was.

Her resolve lasted until she opened the bathroom door and saw Jane and Sabina stretched across her bed, their heads close together as they whispered fiercely.

Elena couldn’t even come up with a coherent thought before her feet were moving, propelling her back toward the safety and normality of the bathroom. But she tripped over the threshold and smacked her hand hard against the door to keep from falling.

Which, of course, drew Jane and Sabina’s attention.

She pulled on every emotional reserve she had not to crumble under their gazes. She knew she looked like an idiot, all flushed and nervy and frozen in the doorframe.

“Are you all right?” Jane asked.

Sabina was grinning again — and honestly, Elena was surprised she hadn’t quipped at her expense already — as Elena nodded. She stayed standing awkwardly in the doorway for what felt like ten years but was probably only ten seconds.

Finally, Sabina spread her arms, wide and inviting. “Come to bed,” she said.

Jane immediately smacked her across the chest.

“Hey!” Sabina cried.

“I told you to behave,” Jane said with a huff. “Honestly.” She turned her attention back to Elena, who hadn’t moved a muscle. It had been either that or collapse on the floor at Sabina’s invitation, so Elena thought she’d handled at least that part pretty well.

“What she means is —” Jane started. “What she means is —” The Angel groaned in frustration. “What she means is come to bed,” she finally finished.

Sabina squeaked, somewhere between indignant and pleased as hell, then rolled to block as Jane threatened to hit her again.

“What?” Elena said from her position in the doorway. She was surprised any words could make it out of her mouth, as dry as it had gotten.

“We’re going to cuddle, and you’re going to sleep,” Jane said, like it was the most natural situation in the world, like they did this with all their colleagues. 

To be fair, for all Elena knew, they did. But she was pretty sure lying in bed with two women as gorgeous and confident and capable as Jane and Sabina would not in any way put her to sleep.

“You guys don’t have to —” she said before Jane cut her off.

“No arguing,” she said. “You’re going to sleep. Even if we have to hold you down to make sure you stay in bed.”

Sabina let out a bark of laughter, and Jane smacked her again, this time with less force.

“Not in a sexual way.”

“Sure,” Sabina said. “You say that now, but we all heard you. Janey wants to hold Elena down in bed.”

“So do you,” Jane muttered.

Elena had no idea what was happening anymore. She wasn’t dreaming, but she could still be hallucinating. There was no way this could really be happening, right? She finally gave into impulse and just plopped onto the floor.

Both Jane and Sabina were out of bed and at her side in an instant.

“Oh, man,” Sabina said. “You broke her.”

“I did not,” Jane hissed. “Besides you were the one making all kinds of horrendous innuendos when I specifically told you not to do that.”

“Please,” a dazed Elena said from between them. “Please just tell me what’s going on.”

“I’m sorry,” Jane said, reaching out to cup Elena’s cheek. “We really are just here to help you sleep. Sabina wasn’t meant to scare you.” She shot the other Angel a glare, and Sabina stuck out her tongue. 

“I didn’t scare her. She was into it,” Sabina protested. She turned her attention to Elena, threading her fingers gently through the other woman’s hair. “Weren’t you, baby girl?”

Elena had fully expected her body to go back into panic mode when they touched her, but all she felt was nice, comforted. She leaned into Jane’s touch, and between the steady hand on her cheek and Sabina’s fingers curling nonstop in her hair, she lost herself, her eyes slipping shut.

Sabina laughed softly. “I told you,” she stage-whispered to Jane. “She loves it.”

Jane sighed. “Except we’re supposed to be getting her to sleep. You know how exhausted she is.”

“I’m fine,” Elena murmured, though it came out worryingly slurred. She sounded tired. She _was_ tired, but she’d stay up forever if it meant this moment kept happening.

“Liar,” Jane said fondly. She took her hand off Elena’s cheek, and Elena whimpered at the loss. But it was only a matter of seconds before Jane was grabbing hold of her arms and pulling her off the floor. “Come on. Up you get.”

Elena let the Angels wrangle her to a standing position, but as the three headed for the bed, her anxiety came rushing back. All she could think about was Jane and Sabina spread out across it, inviting her in.

“What is this?” she asked, her voice shaking with her nerves. “Is this standard procedure for all new recruits?”

Sabina’s laughter was loud, and Jane’s was soft. “No, darling,” the latter said. “This is only for you.”

“We like you,” Sabina said. “Duh.”

Elena wasn’t sure she believed that — why would two amazing, beautiful women like Sabina and Jane care about plain old, nerdy Elena? — but she didn’t know why Sabina would lie to her. “I, uh, thank you?” she stammered.

“You’re welcome,” Sabina said brightly and pressed a quick kiss to Elena’s cheek.

“We _do_ like you,” Jane said.

Jane definitely wouldn’t lie to her, not even as some kind of misguided joke. But Elena was also pretty sure her brain had completely shut down some fifteen minutes ago when two Angels in pajamas had shown up at her door, and she wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe she could parse it in the morning.

“I, uh, okay,” Elena said. “I like you guys, too?”

Jane smiled. “You’re cute, but we’re going to work on that confidence. After you sleep.” She took hold of Elena’s shoulders and gently maneuvered her onto the bed.

Despite Jane clearly attempting not to manhandle her too much, Elena couldn’t help but remember Sabina’s earlier teasing about Jane holding her down in bed. She shivered. She wanted that, and it seemed like — if she wasn’t being a complete and total idiot — her Angels were offering.

“Are you all right?” Jane asked.

Elena nodded quickly, hoping the others couldn’t tell where her thoughts were drifting. No such luck, it seemed because Sabina just laughed.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” she asked.

Jane sighed heavily and shook her head. “Ignore her,” she told Elena. “Get comfortable.”

Elena was sliding back toward the headboard and under the covers before she really thought about what was happening here. It wasn’t until Sabina threw herself down on the bed behind her that it fully connected.

“Uh,” Elena squeaked. “I, uh…”

Jane stopped in the middle of getting in the bed on Elena’s other side. “Elena,” she said gently. “You have to tell us if there’s something wrong. We won’t do anything you don’t want. But right now, we’re really just trying to get you to sleep.”

“I’m okay,” Elena said quickly, too quickly, panic welling up deep inside. She didn’t want to mess this up. She didn’t want them to leave.

Jane reached out a hand toward her cheek but stopped. “Can I touch you?” she asked.

Elena swallowed hard and nodded. There was no real reason to stop her, not without seeming like the panicked idiot she was. Besides, the last time Jane held her, it had felt so good, so right. Maybe it would keep the nerves at bay.

Jane followed through, cupping Elena’s cheek, her thumb swiping softly at the skin there. “Good girl,” she murmured. “You’re doing fine. Just breathe for me.”

Elena nodded and concentrated on moving air in and out of her lungs. It was harder than normal, harder than she thought it should’ve been.

“Can I touch, too?” Sabina asked from over Elena’s shoulder. “I’ll be good, promise.”

“Please,” Elena breathed. She wasn’t sure it would help her sleep, but she also wasn’t sure she cared. Her body betrayed her immediately, twitching as Sabina’s fingers first trailed lightly down her side.

“I’m fine,” she said reflexively, both out of habit and in response to the concern that stitched itself across Jane’s face.

“You don’t have to be,” Jane said. “We can stop.”

Elena’s heart dropped at the thought this — whether it helped her rest or not — would end. She shook her head hard, as tears sprang to her eyes. “Don’t. Please don’t stop.”

“You’re precious,” Jane whispered, shifting her grip so she took hold of Elena’s chin. She dropped a quick kiss next to her lips.

At almost the exact same moment, Sabina tightened her grip on Elena’s hip, drawing a gasp from her.

“Sabina,” Jane warned. Though her crisp tone did just as much to set Elena’s heart racing as any of Sabina’s groping.

“I’m behaving,” Sabina drawled, her fingers flexing, digging into Elena’s side as she pulled her closer.

“You better be,” Jane said before turning her attention back to Elena. “Can I get in bed, darling? Remember you can say no.”

“No,” Elena murmured without fully thinking it through, too caught up in Sabina’s touch and the anticipation of Jane’s. Just a second later, when Jane shrank away from her and Sabina took her hand back, her brain kicked in.

Her entire body tensed up, her nerves flaring, as she realized what she’d said.

“No — no —” she stammered. “I meant I didn’t even think of saying no. I couldn’t. Please, Jane.” She held her arms out the best she could while lying on her side. “I need you to make me sleep.”

There was a momentary silence before Sabina snorted. “Hot,” she said, resuming her stroking along Elena’s side. “You heard the lady, Janey.”

“You’re sure?” Jane asked, looking Elena right in the eyes, searching for any trace of discomfort or distress.

“I’m sure,” Elena said, trying to push as much confidence into the words as possible. She hoped it worked. She’d done enough fucking up lately. “I’m sorry about a second ago. I really want you in here.”

Between her soul-search of Elena’s eyes and her tone itself, Jane must have been satisfied because she climbed in the bed, snuggling up to the others.

Elena breathed a sigh of relief. At least she’d managed to fix this one thing.

“Time for all good girls to go to sleep,” Jane announced, as she tapped Elena’s nose softly. “And you too, Sabina. Eyes closed.”

Elena immediately compiled while Sabina grumbled, her eyes sliding shut as she nestled into the Angels’ embraces. She still wasn’t sure this would help her sleep, but she was more than willing to try for Jane — and if it meant cuddling in bed with two gorgeous women, she wasn’t exactly going to complain.

“All right,” Jane said. “Match my breathing.” 

She went into a calming series of breaths that Elena recognized from weapons training. It was supposed to focus the mind, and she’d tried to use it before to help her sleep. It hadn’t done much then, but with Jane breathing the same way in front of her and Sabina picking up the pattern behind her, it was easier than ever for Elena to fall into that placid headspace.

“There you go,” Jane whispered. “Perfect.” She pressed a soft kiss to Elena’s forehead, which only caused her to melt into the mattress.

It was hardly a matter of minutes before Elena could feel herself drifting. She was sinking further, her muscles relaxing, as she yawned. Behind her, Sabina had stopped stroking her side, her breathing falling out of tandem with the others. She was asleep, but Elena wanted to fight it.

Elena yawned again. “I don’t want to sleep,” she confessed. She didn’t want to miss a single moment of Sabina warm against her back, Jane pressed in close. And there was another worry: “What about tomorrow night?”

“We’ll be here every night,” Jane said. “Every night you’ll have us.”

“Every night,” Elena murmured, pressing herself into the pillow. She couldn’t see Jane’s smile with her eyes closed, but she could hear it in her reply.

“Every night, then,” Jane promised. “Sleep now, sweetheart. We’ll be here in the morning.”

And they were — Elena woke to strong arms around her, rested for what felt like the first time in at least a month.

The Angels couldn’t fully cure her nerves, of course, and even with them around, Elena still had her restless nights. But whenever her brain got too loud, her body too antsy, Jane and Sabina were never far away, ready to soothe and comfort, like Jane had promised.

With them by her side, helping her to stay strong, Elena thought she could handle just about anything.


End file.
